Detroit Lions Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders took part in the coin toss Oct. 16, 2016 at Ford Field in Detroit. The 1991 Lions were honored at halftime of the game between the Lions and Los Angeles Rams.(Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

Jamie Samuelsen, co-host of the "Jamie and Stoney Show" weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on WXYT-FM (97.1), blogs for freep.com. He also appears regularly on Fox 2​. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at jamsam22@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter @jamiesamuelsen.

Which Detroit sports story do you think would best make a “30 for 30” documentary?

I’m at a point now where 30 for 30s have become like Chips Ahoy! cookies. I don’t think I want them. I try to avoid them. But when they present themselves, I always gobble them up and enjoy them immensely.

Such was the case with the Lakers/Celtics 30 for 30 that came out a few weeks ago. I lived through the heart of that rivalry and felt like there wasn’t that much more I could learn.

I was wrong.

The brilliance of this documentary series is that it hooks you into stories you don’t care about, or teaches you more about subjects that you thought you already knew a lot about. I’ve found myself watching hours and hours of John Daly, Colombian soccer and Tonya Harding vs. Nancy Kerrigan.

Detroit, like in most sports topics, has gotten short shrift when it’s come to 30 for 30s. Other than the Bad Boys and the Fab Five, very little has been covered on the history of this great sports town. I suppose the Tonya-Nancy special counts seeing as the crime went down at Cobo. But other than that, it’s been sparse.

Here then are five ideas for the people over in Bristol to mull over in the planning sessions.

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The rivalry had everything, including goalie fights between the Avs’ Patrick Roy and the Wings’ Mike Vernon and later Chris Osgood (above).(Photo: Julian H. Gonzalez, Detroit Free Press)

1. Wings vs. Avs: Everyone agrees that ESPN doesn’t have nearly enough hockey. Everyone agrees that this was the best rivalry in pro sports at the time. There are so many elements to this that go beyond the March 26, 1997, game. You had the war of words between Scotty Bowman and Marc Crawford. Bowman shouted at Claude Lemieux in the parking lot outside McNichols Arena in Denver. The Patrick Roy/Chris Osgood fight a year after the first brawl. This is one of those subject matters that the non-hockey fan would love to learn about as well, even if they didn’t realize it. In some ways, it is the perfect rivalry thanks to the talent, the championships and the deep hatred that still exists in some form today.

2. Barry Sanders’ retirement: The greatest running back in the history of the game walks away from football on the eve of training camp, within spitting distance of the all-time rushing record -- and we’re still not totally sure why he did it. I’m not sure there could be a more compelling subject than that. The story would begin with William Sanders proclaiming in the spring that Barry might be done with the game and go all the way through Sanders’ agent trying to gain free agency for his client under the belief that he wanted to play somewhere else. If you don’t think this one event could constitute a 30 for 30, then you could fold it into my next idea.

3. The curse of Bobby Layne: I’ve long believed that the Lions' losing ways has been under-reported in the American sports landscape. The Red Sox and the Cubs were the lovable losers, until they weren’t. The Browns have become the epitome of losing in the NFL. The Clippers are a sports punchline of sorts. It’s all amounted to the fact that I don’t think sports fans appreciate just how bad the Lions have been and for how long fans have suffered. Sanders' retirement would be part of this as would Calvin Johnson’s. The Matt Millen era. The one playoff win in a half century. We know how bad the Lions have been. It’s time for the rest of America to learn.

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Tigers left fielder Willie Horton says of this Game 5 play at Tiger Stadium: "We were down 3-2 in the fifth inning and (Lou) Brock was on second when Julian Javier hit the ball. I fielded it and threw it all the way to Bill Freehan on the fly. If Brock had slid, he'd have scored, but he came in standing and Freehan put the tag on him. Of all the plays, that's the one that stands out. That was the turning point for us to go on and win the World Series."(Photo: Tony Spina/Detroit Free Press)

4. The 1968 Tigers: This team has been documented in other ways, by other networks. But it would sure be fun to see them get the 30 for 30 treatment. Denny McClain himself might be worth a special, but his story could be told as part of the story of how a baseball team helped to make a city feel a little bit better. The fact that so much is happening in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots this year, the timing couldn’t be better to tell the story again.

5. The hiring of Rich Rodriguez: This might be a bit of a stretch. But I’d definitely watch Bill Martin, Lloyd Carr, Les Miles, Kirk Herbstreit and Rich Rod sit down on camera to discuss the tumultuous few weeks after Carr retired and the process that Michigan went through to settle on Rodriguez. So many things had to go right (or wrong as the case may be) to put Rodriguez in Ann Arbor. It started when Rodriguez turned down Alabama the year before and ended when Martin went yachting at the exact same time that Miles was looking for clarity on his dream job. Maybe the real story can finally be told.

The 30 for 30 series was meant to honor the first 30 years of ESPN. Obviously, the Lions story and the ‘68 Tigers fall outside of these parameters. But it doesn’t change the fact that their stories deserve to be told and are stories that a lot of viewers would enjoy seeing.